


In Any Universe

by SpaceTimeConundrum



Series: Any Universe [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, Introspection, Pete's World, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 13:36:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1081635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceTimeConundrum/pseuds/SpaceTimeConundrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose and the Metacrisis!Doctor have been left with a lot to think about while walking back from the beach in Norway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. In Any Universe

_"Does it need saying?"_

When he heard his other self utter those words his single heart had leapt in his chest. He was giving him a chance; stepping back from the words he'd never quite managed to say to her and had longed desperately for another chance to, all so that he could prove to her that he was still the same man. So that _he_ could be the one to live a happy life with Rose, day after day, the one adventure he could never have...before.

He hadn't known quite what he expected her reaction to be when he leaned over and whispered those three words in her ear, finally, _finally_ , but it certainly wasn't the one he got. After a brief moment of shock, he wrapped his arms around her tightly, pulling her closer as he kissed her back with all the passion he'd never dared show when they were together. He had missed her so much and needed her desperately right now. Oh Rassilon, why the hell hadn't he done this before; kissing Rose Tyler was quite possibly the best thing in the universe. No, make that _two_ universes.

Their kiss had ended all too abruptly though, when Rose jerked back from him at the sound of the TARDIS dematerializing. She started to run towards the rapidly disappearing blue box but stopped short as it faded away entirely. _Coward_. He really was miserable with goodbyes, wasn't he? He slowly released the breath he hadn't realised he was holding and walked over to take Rose's hand, heart thundering in his chest. She turned to look at him, her expression just as at a loss as the one he was sure was on his face at the moment. Now what?

They stood there for a while, simply gazing into each other's eyes, neither sure what to do or say next, unwilling to breach the silence as the cold wind whipped around them. Was she going to scream? Cry? Snog him again? At that thought, he licked his lips and swallowed in an attempt to dislodge the lump that had formed in his throat. Just as he'd opened his mouth to say something, anything to her, they were interrupted by Jackie walking over to them waving her mobile. At the sight of her mother, Rose dropped his hand and pulled her arms around herself tightly. 

"Oi. I don't know about you lot, but I'd like to get off this bloody frozen beach. Jus' spoke to Pete, he's going to fetch us as soon as he can, but we're on our own gettin' into town. Come on, shift!"

At her prodding, the Doctor turned to trudge in the direction Jackie pointed. With a glance at Rose, he sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets when she didn't move to take his offered hand again, instead electing to pace quietly behind him through the sand. 

Perhaps sensing their discomfort, Jackie tried to fill the silence of their walk back to civilization with the details of her life with Pete in the years since he'd last seen them. He wasn't really listening though, his Time Lord mind whirling in a million directions at once. 

Surreptitiously watching Rose through the corner of his eye, the Doctor attempted to inventory his new body and ponder their situation. He found himself shivering in the cold wind, which was new for him. He must be running closer to a human body temperature, but it was hard to say. Memories and intellect seemed intact, thank goodness. His muscles and head ached somewhat as they plodded onward, passing a sign indicating it would be four more kilometers to the nearest village. 

_Could do with a meal_ , he noted as his stomach rumbled unhappily. It occurred to him that he had literally _never eaten_ in this body. No wonder he was hungry.

It felt a bit like a new regeneration, only not quite. The things that he'd taken for granted, that normally stayed the same from one regeneration to the next, had changed while his face remained the same. _Still not ginger_ , he thought with a tiny smile. Never would be now, actually. That thought sobered him. Still, could be worse. Fitting really, to be stuck in the form inspired by Rose for the rest of his life with her, if she still wanted him. 

His voice had normalized back to his usual Estuary accent since the metacrisis but he wondered just how much Donna he still had lurking in him. Oh, Donna. He hoped she was alright but feared the worst, knowing full well that his mind, his memories could very possibly cause her to burn. _He'll have to pull it out of her_ , he thought bitterly. Another lie his other self had told Rose to convince her to stay in Pete's World, that he'd have Donna to keep him company. He shook his head to clear it.

Back to inventory. Something was missing. Something that should be there, other than his second heart, was gone but he couldn't quite place it. He bounced a little with his next few steps, trying to warm his body and synapses simultaneously. He searched his mind, running through a catalogue of what he should have until it occurred to him. He was alone in his head. Even more so than after the Time War ended and he lost the constant low-level murmur in the back of his mind that signaled the presence of other Time Lords. His link to the TARDIS was gone, sealed off behind the walls of the universe thanks to the dimensional retroclosure. How had he not noticed immediately? 

Blinking back the tears that threatened to spring from his eyes at this sudden sense of loss, he searched his pocket desperately until he located the small piece of coral his other self had left them. His only connection to the TARDIS now, he held it tightly in his hand and willed it to give him something, anything to reassure him that it was still alive. It was warm to the touch and he would swear he could feel it vibrate ever so slightly against his palm but there was no sense of it in his mind yet. He hoped Donna was right and they could raise this fledgling nub into a fully grown TARDIS over the next ten years in this strange parallel universe. He quite liked hope, that was a good emotion.

Until then though, he looked over at Rose as she walked, frowning along the chilly Norwegian road. Blimey, what on Earth were they going to do in the meantime? She hadn't said so much as another word to him since their kiss back on the beach and was carefully avoiding his gaze even now. He knew this wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping for when she set out to find him. It certainly wasn't how he expected a reunion with Rose to go, when he'd dared to fantasize about such things. No, his ideal situation would've involved far fewer Daleks and a significantly happier Rose. _And much more kissing_ , he added as an afterthought.

That reminded him of their moment of passion earlier and succeeded in derailing his thoughts for a bit as he felt a warm flush at the memory. He could still feel her lips on his, warm and sweet and demanding. He'd like to do much more than kiss her, actually. Wait, where did that thought come from? Time Lords didn't... well they could, but it was hardly the point. When you can live for thousands of years these sorts of things simply cease to be imperative. Not that he'd _never_ , but honestly he was pretty terrible at reading those sorts of cues from the other species he encountered and it usually didn't occur to him to think of anyone _that way_. Though, it seemed since this latest regeneration he had gotten more than his usual share of, ahem, attention. He supposed he had Rose to thank for that indirectly; she had liked her pretty boys. He wondered not for the first time what it said about himself that he'd regenerated the way he did; his voice and face and personality seemingly tailor-made to suit her. 

He'd accidentally done it again, he mused. Moreso, this time, since he now had a healthy dose of humanity mixed in, giving him the wonderful and horrible gift of a single human lifetime to grow old with her. He ought to be wearing a bow, the way the universe had gift-wrapped his human-Time Lord self for her. He didn't envy his other self, having to walk away from everything he'd ever wanted standing in front of him, wearing the same face, kissing his Rose. 

_Mmm... kissing Rose_. He kept coming back to that. Not that it'd been the first time they'd kissed, but really it was the first that really counted. Cassandra kissing him didn't count, neither when he kissed the Bad Wolf, since she wasn't really herself and didn't remember, and ancient Rome, well that was hardly the same sort of thing. He'd waited years for that kiss, he couldn't be blamed for fixating on it a little. Or a lot.

He spent a few pleasant moments replaying that kiss in his mind as a silly grin stole across his face. He was exhausted but the memory sent warm prickles of excitement through his body and he shivered, not from the cold this time. The warm feeling shifted a little lower. That was new.

_Wait... Is it? No..._ In addition to the loss of his dual cardiovascular system and respiratory bypass it would seem he had inherited something else from Donna. He had human _hormones_. Well, wasn't that just wizard.

\-----

As they finally approached the quiet Norwegian village she'd last seen three years, practically a lifetime, ago, Rose was at a loss. What the hell was she supposed to do with a half human copy of the man she'd spent so long trying to return to? He said he was the same man, and part of her, the part that had grabbed him on the beach not so long ago, believed him. But she wasn't sure how to feel about it yet. 

Intellectually, she realised that she'd been given something amazing, something she'd never really in her wildest dreams thought possible. But part of her thought back to the look her Doctor's face when she'd asked him how that sentence on the beach those years ago was going to end. He'd looked so sad. And he'd left her yet again, without consulting her first or saying goodbye properly, in another universe. Damn him.

Her eyes flicked over to the other Doctor, walking along ahead of her in that slim blue suit, shoulders hunched against the chill. He'd stayed. Had he known what the Doctor was going to do? He'd not really had much of a choice in the matter either, as far as she knew but who could say? He hadn't seemed all that surprised by anything but the Doctor's accusation that he was dangerous. He'd also said those words she'd hoped to hear from the Doctor so long ago.

In the village, they found a small inn that had rooms available for the night and the promise of a hot meal in the restaurant situated on the ground floor. As her mother struggled to communicate with the clerk whose English was poor at best, Rose finally allowed herself to meet the Doctor's eyes. He gave her a nervous smile that she couldn't help but return briefly. She cleared her throat to speak but faltered, unsure still of what to say to him.

"Here we are then. Rose, we're in room 6; Doctor, you've got number 19." Her mother pressed a room key into the Doctor's hand. "I think we could all do for some cleaning up, eh?"

At first, Rose didn't resist when her mother pulled her to their room but stopped when they got to the door. She shouldn't leave him all alone right now, it wasn't fair. 

"Mum, I'll catch up with you later, I think I should go talk to the Doctor."

Jackie raised an eyebrow as she watched her daughter walk down the hall but didn't say anything. _Those two_... she shook her head. If anyone needed to have a serious conversation it was definitely them.

\-----

He'd made it to his room and sat down on the bed, feeling lost, but that was as much as he'd managed so far. He supposed he ought to get up and take a shower or something. He reeked of smoke and was covered in what he assumed, but wasn't interested in enough to lick to be sure, was a mixture of sweat, salt spray from the beach and remnants of the Dalek army from the Crucible. Not that a shower would matter all that much, without any fresh clothes to change into or his sonic screwdriver to clean them. 

He'd have to build a new one. Provided he could find the parts here on Earth. He was clever, he'd figure something out. Curious, he put his hands in his pockets to see what he had managed to bring with him. Not much, it would seem. Several bits of currency from other worlds he'd visited, some wires and various electronic sundries, Venusian Spearmint toothbrush, roll of duct tape, keys to a car he didn't remember nicking, a small torch, a few pencils, menu to a take away chip shop, the TARDIS coral, and a well worn photograph.

This last item made him pause. It had been taken at a fun fair in 1934. Rose had seen the booth and dragged him over to it, insisting that it was perfect. In the photo he was seated next to her, grinning happily with his arm around her shoulders, atop a wooden crescent moon in front of a backdrop of painted stars. She was beautiful, smiling with her tongue between her teeth, looking at him instead of the camera, wearing a pretty floral dress that suited her.

A soft knock at the door interrupted his reverie. He quickly stuffed the photo back into his pocket and stood to answer. Rose stood before him, her posture uncertain, but still, she was there.

"Hello," she greeted him.

"Hello," he repeated quietly.

"Can I, uh... can I come in?"

He nodded and stepped aside to allow her into the room. He turned to face her, closing the door behind him and noticed she was wringing her hands nervously. She glanced at the clutter laid on the bed and then back at him. 

"Just... taking inventory I guess," he answered her unspoken question.

Rose nodded and sat down carefully on a clear space at the edge of the bed. "I thought maybe we should talk."

"Of course. What, um, what should we talk about?" His voice squeaked a bit on that last part and he cleared his throat again, trying to decide if he should sit down as well. 

"Us. The future. I don't know." She laughed half heartedly at her own confusion. "We're a right pair. Look at us, stuck together again, aren't we?"

"Stuck with you, that's not so bad," he answered with a soft smile.

At that, she looked up at him and her resolve broke. She stood and wrapped him in a fierce hug, tears streaming from her eyes. "I missed you so much!" Her words muffled against his shoulder. He held her tightly, making comforting sounds as he kissed her hair. "I missed you too Rose."

They stood that way, swaying slowly together for a while until Rose's tears abated. Sniffling, she wiped her eyes and looked up at him. He really was the same man after all. "Doctor...?"

He was delighted to hear her call him that and looked into her eyes as she spoke. 

"I love you too." Her voice was thick with the recent tears but steady. 

He took a deep breath, "I don't know what we're going to do but whatever it is, no matter what, I promise you we're going to have a fantastic life. That's what he'd want, what I want. Together, yeah?" He leaned forward and kissed her tenderly on the lips.

They stood frozen like that for a moment, the Doctor's eyes worriedly searching her face for a reaction, positive or negative. Both their hearts were racing, beating in unfamiliar synchronicity. The room felt close and warm in those seconds until one of them blinked and all at once the nervous tension between them became something else entirely. 

Their mouths came together in a rush, kissing as though the world were ending, which, in their defense, it very nearly had not four hours previously. Hands clutching at each other furiously, they stumbled backwards until they fell on the bed, scattering the contents of the Doctor's pockets to the floor with a clatter. It didn't slow them down. Gasping for air, they paused long enough for the Doctor to reflect on the fact that somehow they'd both managed to divest themselves of their jackets and well on their way to complete shirtlessness. Briefly, he considered suggesting that they slow down but that thought died unvoiced when Rose pulled her top over her head and pushed him back against the mattress.

Kissing Ro... no, _Rose Tyler_ was definitely the best thing in any universe.


	2. Good Morning

Rose awoke to grey morning light streaming through gaps in the heavy curtains not quite fully drawn across the window. She blinked slowly, her fuzzy mind struggling to recall where she was and how she'd come to be there. Months and months of journeying between universes had made waking in strange locales an all too common occurrence. An unfamiliar bed was actually rather refreshing when you considered some of the things she'd woken to find in the recent past.

Still not entirely awake, she stretched her limbs, luxuriating in the simple comfort of a quiet moment and a soft bed. She froze mid-motion though when her arm brushed against a warm body lying next to her. Turning her head to look at her unexpected companion, Rose found herself gazing at the sleeping form of the Doctor. _Oh_. Right. Now she remembered.

This was hardly the first time she'd shared a bed with the Doctor. It had happened more than once that they'd ended up bunking together when circumstances required it. During the last few months before Canary Wharf, they'd sort of fallen into the habit even when on the TARDIS after one too many encounters with danger left one or the other of them feeling vulnerable enough to seek comfort in each other's arms. Company kept the nightmares at bay, so every night the Doctor would join Rose and hold her until she fell asleep. They never spoke about it, neither one willing to admit out loud what they were doing, for fear of what it might mean. But this was something new. It was rare enough for her to wake before the Doctor and find him still next to her in the morning, but to find him there without a stitch of clothing on was… surreal.

Gingerly, she reached out her hand to touch him, scarcely believing he was real. Asleep, he looked younger than he had on the beach, more like the man she remembered tucking into bed in her mothers flat on Christmas Eve nearly four years ago. He'd cut his hair shorter on the sides since then but it retained its magnificent disarray on top. She ran her fingers gently through it near his temple and the sleeping Doctor leaned in to her caress with a contented mumble. She slid her hand down the side of his face to stroke along his jaw line, feeling the barest hint of stubble forming there and the slow and steady beat of his now-human heart at his throat.

As images of their night together surfaced in her memory like ships emerging from the fog, she laid her head against his chest and curled up beside him with her arm draped across his torso. His skin, that had always felt cool to the touch before, now radiated heat, warming her in the chilly Norwegian hotel room. It felt wrong to her but at the same time, oh, so right.

There'd been so many times in the past when they'd come dangerously close to crossing the invisible line of intimacy that the Doctor had drawn between them, but he'd always managed to pull away just before anything happened. This new Doctor hadn't held back.

This new Doctor had been able to tell her how he felt, had been able and willing to show her how he felt too. When they kissed, he clung to her desperately; needing her, wanting her, as badly as she'd always wanted and needed him. She couldn't recall how they'd ended up on the bed, but she did remember pushing him back against the mattress to kiss him while her other hand fumbled with the button on his trousers. He'd broken their kiss briefly with a gasp as she tugged at the zip and met her heated gaze with a slightly panicked look in his eyes. Internally, she'd held her breath, expecting this to be the moment when he withdrew, but he surprised her by shifting his hips up to press against her hand and reaching around to find the clasp of her bra.

It had been something like five years since Rose had been with anyone like this; her attempts to throw herself into her work with Torchwood and the Dimension Cannon quest to find the Doctor had left little room for relationships. Returning to Mickey had seemed far too cruel, considering. Who knew how long it'd been for the Doctor. At least since before the Time War, she guessed, unless he'd changed drastically during their separation.

Encouraged by his eager response to her touch, Rose had hurried to remove the last barriers of fabric separating them. Dragging in air with ragged breaths, they held still for just a moment to take in the sight of their bodies together. The Doctor, or at least this new hybrid version of him, had surprisingly normal human anatomy it turned out. A tiny part of Rose wondered if she was disappointed by this discovery or relieved. She certainly wasn't about to complain though; there were absolutely no ambiguous messages in his body's reaction to her.

Rose met the Doctors gaze and flushed at what she saw. She'd never seen the Doctor look at anyone or anything like that before. It scared her a little; she could see some of the Oncoming Storm in his brown eyes, but instead of the promise of violence or quiet rage, they held desire. If she'd had any lingering doubts that this is what he wanted, they died in that instant.

She'd be lying if she didn't admit that a small part of what fueled her passion was a sense of defiance against the Time Lord who'd abandoned them and couldn't be bothered to say a proper goodbye. But most of it was the crazed elation that came from being alive, and together, after everything they'd been through; all those jumps, the pain and destruction she'd witnessed, the years spent wondering about words left unsaid, meaningful glances unacted upon had weighed on her. They had their whole lives together now but it almost seemed too good to be true. Last night had been a way to prove to each other that this wasn't just some mad dream.

It had not been the night to take it slow and savor each moment. Between the desperate, frantic need for comfort that brought them together and the mind-numbing exhaustion that tugged at the edges of their consciousness, their union was brief. Considering how out of practice they both were, it went rather well though. What they lacked in coordination, endurance, and skill, they made up for in enthusiasm.

Actually, it had been, to borrow a phrase from her Doctor, bloody _fantastic_.

Rose knew better than to assume that one night had resolved everything between them but it was a start. She hoped they hadn't inadvertently made things more difficult by jumping right in to a physical relationship so quickly. Neither one of them was the same as they'd been three years ago; the naive young shop girl was long gone and he'd just changed from a nine hundred year old time traveling alien to a part-human permanent resident of Earth. It was going to take some time to get reacquainted. In the very least, they had three years worth of stories to catch up on.

Trailing her fingers idly against the smooth skin and soft hair on his bare chest, Rose smiled. They'd manage to make it work somehow. If they could survive regenerations, daleks, and the end of the world (more times than she could count) then they could handle anything this universe could dish out. And, knowing them, there would be a hell of a lot of fun and adventure along the way.

She felt the Doctor's breath hitch as he stirred to wakefulness in her arms and snuggled closer to him, her right hand still tracing patterns against his ribs. "Mmm..." he rumbled and lifted his head to press a soft kiss on the crown of her head, "good morning."

"Good morning Doctor."

She met his eyes and was delighted to see a sleepy smile on his lips. She returned it with a flirtatious glance down his body. He blushed adorably when he realised what she was hinting at but recovered admirably.

"Ah. It seems I have misplaced my pants," he offered her a cheeky grin, "you wouldn't by any chance know where they've gone to, would you?"

Tongue in teeth, she shook her head and slid her wandering hand lower. "Haven't a clue Doctor. Are you sure you need them?"

"Welllllllll..." he began.

Her hand slipped under the covers and she maneuvered with the other hand to sit up and pull him in for a kiss. She definitely had his full attention now. She broke the kiss for a moment to swing a leg over his hips so that she was straddling him. He wrapped his arms around her eagerly. This kiss was deliberate, soft and simmered with heat. Slowly Rose lowered herself on top him until they were pressed tightly together, feeling each other's heartbeats in every breath.

As the Doctor's kisses became more intense and insistent she had an idea. She moved her hips against him until he inhaled sharply. Flushed and eyes bright, she rolled off of him and climbed out of the bed, leaving him sputtering and confused.

"Wha-?"

"It feels like it's been ages since I've had a hot shower. I'm going to go get cleaned up," she replied, barely managing not to laugh.

The poor Doctor looked bewildered and flustered as he stared at her, his hair sticking up in every direction. She turned and walked purposefully toward the bathroom, hiding a wicked grin. Pausing at the doorway, almost as an afterthought, she composed her face and turned to look back at him again.

"Well? Aren't you going to join me?" she teased and went in to turn on the water.

He blinked and scrambled to free himself from the bed clothes and get to his feet as fast as possible, hurrying after her. The small room was already steaming up when he caught the now laughing Rose in his arms just before she could step into the shower.

"Doctor," she said with a shiver as he began kissing her neck, "shut the door, you're letting all of the warm air out."

He closed it with a free hand and then urged her forward into the shower, pressing her up against the wall under the spray of heated water, hands and mouth moving steadily further down her torso. The feel of her body, wet and slippery in his arms, the taste of her skin... he could get used to this whole 'being human' business.

\-----

After, they curled up together, damp and half dressed, on the bed, having rummaged about the room in search of their discarded clothing and pulling on underthings and shirts at least. The Doctor had been telling her how he'd met Donna after she'd appeared mysteriously on his ship when they were interrupted by Rose's mobile buzzing.

Retrieving the device from the floor, she blanched when she saw the name on the caller id. "Mum. Oh god, I forgot! I didn't go back to the room last night!" She turned to the Doctor, who looked horrified when he realised what that meant.

"We'd best get dressed," he said, picking up his trousers quickly, "she'll be at the door any minute and I don't fancy being slapped by Jackie Tyler when I haven't got any regenerations left to spare."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> "In Any Universe" was actually the very first piece of fan fiction I'd ever written. I originally intended it to be a stand-alone story but then I had a moment of inspiration while I was trying to write something else (Isn't that always how it happens?) and "Good Morning" was the end result. I've posted them together here instead of separately but you really could read either one on its own.
> 
> If you've enjoyed this, be sure to check out what's next in store for these two in my story "Parallel Adventures".


End file.
